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CONNECTING WHAT MATTERS

Mentored, Field Based Cohort Model (Education)

Training teachers is at the heart of Georgia College. Since its founding in 1889, Georgia College has prepared students for careers in teaching. Today, though the mission of the university is greatly expanded, the College of Education continues to instill confidence and leadership in future teachers. At the crux of the program is the cohort, a group of no more than 20 students that take classes and assess their teaching experiences together during their junior and senior years. Each cohort is organized around a faculty mentor who works with the students as they chart through nearly 1,000 hours in the "teaching field" prior to student teaching.

"It's unique to Georgia College," says Dr. Nancy Mizelle, chair and professor of early childhood and middle grades education. "Our students take courses together for two years, participate in field experiences together, and each cohort is assigned a professor who serves as a Mentor Leader from start to finish. This provides our candidates an experience that is distinctive – one that does not happen in many, maybe any, other institutions."

Georgia College adopted the cohort model about a decade ago and the record of success is clear. Almost 100 percent of new graduate are hired in teaching positions, and after five years, almost 95 percent are still in the classroom – far more than the national average!

The Master of Arts in Teaching is consistent with the undergraduate experience. "It's about building confidence and knowledge so that the challenges of today's classroom can be met," says Dr. Brian Mumma, associate professor and coordinator of the MAT program. MAT students work in cohorts splitting their days between field experience and the college class. "It's about gaining more experience and having an immediate way to talk through what it means - to reflect and process - so that you'll be that much more prepared next time," says Mumma.

Georgia College prepares teachers through the innovative cohort model so that they'll be ready to make a difference in the lives of young people in Georgia and around the nation.

Training of teachers is the core of Georgia College. Since our founding that's what we've done.

Our mission is certainly more than that now, but that legacy -- that purpose -- still drives us at the John H. Lounsbury College of Education.

We want students to learn together, to deconstruct and reconstruct classroom practices in a way that learning is discovered. That's why the cohort model is so important.

Students spend two years working through hundreds of hours in the classroom and in study. They grow as teachers -- together -- under the watchful eye of a faculty mentor who is with them every step of the way.

And the results are amazing. We have a near 100 percent hire rate and about 95 percent retention rate after five years in the profession. That's helping central Georgia and making Georgia College a leader in education both today and well into the future.

The Education Cohort Model at Georgia College is a program of distinction.